January 3, 2010

Learning about multi-cropping

We are in full swing with research now. The health team had a tour of the health clinic and three hour interview with Arturo yesterday; Arturo is the permanent health worker at the clinic (physicians and nurses come and go on an annual basis). This interview on the basic health status and infrastructure of the area helped them finalize their research questions so they'll have specific research tasks for the next two weeks.

The agriculture team began mapping the agriculture fields at the colegio today; we map them every year and conduct interviews on what was grown in them over the past year so we can document the broad process of development through time. A key part of our effort this year is to try to collect enough data to estimate production potential in the fields. Our central research question this year is focused on trying to understand, at least in broad strokes, the relationships among food security, sustainable agriculture, and food self sufficiency. Most of the people who live in this area produce coffee and cacao as cash crops and, plantains, yuca (manioc), and rice as subsistence crops. Because the population density is pretty low is this region, it appears that most people can produce enough food to eat a reasonable diet. Arturo from the clinic reports that childhood stunting is pretty low in this region (childhood stunting is a pretty good measure of the nutritional health of a population). If population increases or if people begin to devote more of their land to cash crops that could change. The Colegio established their sustainable agriculture program in part to produce food for the students and the lodge and in part to understand better what's involved in sustainable agriculture in this region. Part of what we're doing is documenting this process from year to year.

Every year, they experiment with new animals and crops. This year's primary animal husbandry experiment is African sheep which are smaller but more tolerant of hot, humid conditions typical of this region. The most notable thing about them is their complete lack of wool, having hair instead which of course makes them look rather naked... They're housed in a former chicken coop and seem pretty content, one of the females having just given birth to a new lamb, which is jet black with a fluffy white tip on it's tail.

More soon, John







African sheep